Secretariat file No.1/1704/47.
No. 142.
Sir,
53687
RET
115
6- JUL 1948
1
C..
7.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG,
24th June, 1948.
1939
1939
I have the honour to address you on the subject of water supply in Hong Kong, with particular relation to the proposed development of the Colony's waterworks by the construction of a new reservoir at Tai Lam Chung in the New Territories.
2.
This question was under active consideration on the outbreak of the European war in 1939, and in Sir Geoffry Northcote's despatch No.539 of 8th August, 1939, a request was made for a visit by Consulting Engineers. It was subsequently agreed (despatch No.696 of 8th November, 1939) that construction should be deferred until the conclusion of the war, but nevertheless the Consulting Engineers, Messrs. Binnie, Deacon and Gourley visited Hong Kong in 1940 and a report was submitted by them to the Crown Agents for the Colonies on 27th December, 1940. Since the re-occupation of the Colony the matter of increasing the water supply has received further consideration culminating in a geophysical survey of the site of the proposed dam which was undertaken by Messrs. LeGrand Sutcliff and Gell, followed by Messrs. Binnie, Deacon and Gourley's comments thereon which were transmitted to me under cover of Crown Agents' letter Z/E 254/17 of 19th December, 1947.
3.
The question of water supply has been particularly in the public eye during recent months by reason of the abnormally low rainfall which has occurred since last autumn, and the failure of the normal summer rains to materialise until much later than usual this year. Although the storage of water was 5,912 million gallons on 30th September, 1947, the exceptionally low rainfall during the winter and spring resulted in a storage of only 1,689 million gallons on 30th April, 1948, as compared with 2,624 millions on the corresponding date in 1947. Even since the end of April no appreciable rainfall occurred until the middle of June. If the advent of the rains had been any later the hours of supply limited to 16 hours a day during the winter, and to 10 hours a day from 18th March would inevitably have been yet further reduced. The real danger, of course, emerges when a summer of less than average rainfall follows a dry winter and spring with the consequence that the reservoirs are not full at the beginning of the ensuing dry season. The other principal factor in the problem is the greatly increased population. When the water supply was last augmented by the construction of the Shing Mun Reservoir, the Colony's population was barely one half of its present figure. At the present there is no indication of any appreciable downward trend in the population; indeed in the face of the continuing deterioration of conditions in China the possibility of a further influx into the Colony cannot be lightly dismissed.
In such an
B
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
A CREECH JONES, M.P.
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